Puppet Pie

PuppetFest Midwest Tomorrow!

2008-07-07T13:14:00.000-07:00

I leave tomorrow bright and early for PuppetFest Midwest in Trenton, Missouri! I was awarded a scholarship & I plan to use it to the fullest! This festival sneaked up on me. ("Sneaked up" doesn't sound correct..but really it is.) I think I was so excited about the release of the video this week (Yesterday it was a feature story on yahoo! YAY!) that I completely forgot about packing. So today is all about getting my ducks in a row before I leave!

Things I doubt you care about: Swim lessons with the boy-child are going well. If I were a newspaper I'd say something about them going swimmingly. Which causes me to ask why newspapers are still using puns after at least 100 years of readers groaning at them in agony.

He also got into the school we were hoping for! He'll actually be in the kindergarten classroom this year. They stay there until they're about age 7 because it's a hippie-school. How hippie you ask? The 3rd graders are in charge of taking care of the farm animals. They encourage the kids to jump off of the swings, catch frogs, and climb trees. (As long as the tree doesn't bear fruit.) They keep the same teacher from the 1st-8th grade. They spend a lot of time outside while they learn. They all learn to play instruments & paint. They make stilts, learn how to felt, and put on plays. What's even cooler? Puppetry is huge at this school! HUZZAH! (That's a dork's way of saying amen.)

This is where I preach:
Encouraging children to move while they learn and using music to teach math, and art to teach science, and dance to teach language causes children to learn effectively. It's well-rounded and it makes learning far more fun than sitting at a desk. Stupid desks.

Preaching done. Look at a picture of rhinos to flush your brain.

This is it!

2008-06-27T23:08:00.000-07:00

So....this is what I worked on that was all super-secret. Released mere moments ago (I was the 12th view!) and YAY!

For those of you who don't know, it's a Canadian band called the Barenaked Ladies and they're not bare or naked...or ladies. But they do sing some pretty rad music & they released a children's album called Snacktime. I got to go to Chicago in a fancy airplane and ride in a fancy car to a fancy apartment in Boy's Town. Then I got to ride a fancy train and a fancy bus to help finish the puppets up, then I got to sit under a fancy table & play with puppets for 19 fancy hours! FANCY! (Thank you Moxie, for bringing that word back to the forefront of my life)

One of the most wonderful experiences! I loved every minute! I got to work with some amazing puppeteers, as well! WOW. Noah Ginex is the man responsible for most everything you see on screen. From construction and animation to editing. He had a good set of folks around him that helped him work on a fairly tight budget (when it comes to puppets) and an even tighter schedule to make it work.

I could go on for ages. I won't.

This wasn't it....But it's Exciting!!!

2008-06-23T22:19:00.000-07:00

The big thing I was awaiting wasn't this, but this is one thing I was awaiting! My finger puppet kits have arrived at the Maker Shed! (Craft: & Make: Magazine's online store)

They said that the kit is by Stacey Rebecca...implying that either I have no last name or that Rebecca is my last name. I think people have a problem with my name. Poor Stacy Wolf. I'm not sure if I should ask them to fix it. I'm just kind-of excited that I have a product ID number. Although the free-art non-consumer in me is saddened by that...although the desire to pay mortgages and eat food and send my child to school is again excited about it. Hooray consumerism!

So go buy my hard work from someone else! And then they'll buy my hard work from ME! Hooray for the man!

Very Little Time

2008-06-23T00:24:00.000-07:00

The story of having "no time" continues, however if you look at my facebook profile, it seems as though I've found a lot of time for scramble. (a game like boggle) Anyway, it feels like I don't have much time. I possibly procrastinate slightly when I do. However it being midnight-thirty, I'll accept that this is time I can properly waste.

I did get to do a workshop in Gilbert for teens. They had 12 sign up, but only 6 girls came. They were a quiet, but fun group. Wow, some of them got really creative. I love seeing that! Teenagers don't get to play very often. Puppetry is entirely a way to get them to act like idiots--I mean, children.

I've been anxiously awaiting the release of that super-secret project. There has been an announcement on a certain website saying that it would be released at the end of the week. Until then, I play Scramble.

On Friday I had a show that started at 10:30pm (insane), but prior to that, I attended the Cancer Fandango, an event that raised money to help a local improviser pay for his cancer-bills. Lovely insurance doesn't pay for medication, so at 29, Alexander has to worry about debt, cancer, chemotherapy, seizures, boredom, and everything else that goes along with having cancer. Well boo that I say! If you'd like to donate to help an awesome guy out, give him money. Give him all of...or at least some of your money. If a dollar is all you give, then that's one less dollar he has to worry about. Seriously. Or youse can use your computer for the folding at home dealio. (yes, grammar is my strong suit.) You can download that via the linkiedoodle under "give him money."

The next day at the same venue we screened our *cough* award-winning film, Big Benevolent Wolf. First with sound, second with live commentary from the directors. We ACTUALLY had people that enjoyed their evening. I hope it's because a couple that spins plates came on after us. No naked magician last night, but one can only ask for so much.

That's all for now. When the magical future secret project gets released, I'll pee my pants and then announce it here. Our guess is within the next few days.

I leave you with a photo that is near and dear to my heart. You can guess where he was.

Caution: Spoilers

2008-06-03T00:06:00.001-07:00

This is Larry Bignose. The Larry on the left was created by a 9-year-old boy who shall remain nameless for awesome's sake. The Larry on the right was adapted to puppet by me. I have had the extremely good pleasure of adapting four more of his designs into finger puppets. Keeping in mind that I'm plunking these guys down into under 3" of felt, it's not exactly easy. Larry's biggest challenges were in making his hands and his hat. I made the hat separately, and now I think I should have made it bigger...at least the brim. To get the full-on excitement of the hat, you'd have to look at the side view. Nothing will ever be perfect, right? If you know the recipient of this puppet...SHHHH.

We got home last night to find nothing stolen. I'm only mildly disappointed, although I know many of you are very busy with the end of the school-year and all. The only thing missing was our mail, but we knew about that so it doesn't count. A good friend stopped by to get our mail for us while we were out of town & we went by his place on our way home to pick it up. We only had him get our mail after hearing that another friend got a scholarship to PuppetFest Midwest in Trenton, MO* this summer. I also applied for a scholarship, so I was really anxious to find out. I called Bill to see if the letter was there and if so, in what type of envelope, and whether or not it was thick, etc. I had him open it over the phone and read it to me. I got the scholarship! Hooray!

For those of you who don't know, puppet festivals (unlike a lot of improv festivals) cost several hundreds of dollars just to attend. There's no taking just one workshop or going to just one show. It's either all or nothing. So with transportation, I think it bumped this festival up over $1,000 for me...which is completely not-doable. They scholarship pays for the festival, room and board for the week and the workshops. I have to cover transportation, but I can do that!

I only get one real week out of the year to learn from other people and this is it. This festival is unlike a lot of others, in that it offers a full week of classes with only one instructor (most festivals offer that as an option, but not as the only option). And then there are shows in the evenings, and dinners together. You stay in dorm rooms with other puppeteers and it's pretty okay to geek out over something like an arm-rod or a ladder stitch. For my some of my other crafting friends, consider it like going to the bead store with someone who knows what a crimping thingie-doodle is, or to a knitting store where they have bamboo fiber to spin. The nice thing is that all craftsmen are brought together under the love of a dremel. (yes..all)

I still can't believe Maker Faire was only a month ago and that the music video was only 2 and a half weeks ago? wow. A lot has happened recently. Thankfully it's not going to slow down! I have a workshop that I'll give at a Library toward the end of June, and lots of puppets I'm making for people who want puppets. And not to mention that I get to go on vacation next weekend for 8 days at the beach starting next weekend. And thrown in there is Disneyland! Yay!

*Trenton claims to be the world's largest producer of Vienna sausages. World..You have NO idea! None! I will gain 47 pounds in sausages. 45% of those pounds will be sodium. Oh sweet baby hot dogs that come in a can, you will be in my belly. Soon.

Boo for dead batteries

2008-05-31T15:09:00.000-07:00

I'm in California again, but this time on vacation. Hooray! Yesterday we headed into Oakland to visit Children's Fairyland, a small theme-park built in 1950 (pre-Disneyland). They house the oldest continuously running puppet theater in the country. It's full of adorably dated rides and sets and wonderfully updated rides and sets. This was the place that I saw my very first puppet show in either 81 or 82. This was also the place the left me terrified of twisty slides for the rest of my life. My shoe got caught in the tower. The dreaded tower of doom. This dreaded tower of doom is the tower to which they send the kids under 4 years of age because they're too little to go down the big-kid dragon slide of not-getting-your-shoe-stuck.

So at one point we had to take the wee one to the wee-wee room & I saw that the side door was open to the puppet theater...a Yoda poster hung on the wall inside (adorable since Frank Oz used to work there). I saw a man eating a hot-pocket (ohhh delicious hot pockets...how I miss your cheese-goo) & I decided to muster my woman-balls and ask if he was the resident puppeteer. Indeed it was puppeteer, Randal Metz. He invited me in and we talked about puppetry and building and marionettes and shows and well..puppetry for a good hour until it was time for him to start the show. We geeked out so hard that Todd & the boy-child had to leave to do less geeky things.

Their audio is all prerecorded, so he invited me to watch the show from backstage if I wanted to. I wanted to. I brought my mom back (she adores puppets) & we watched Pinocchio. It was an interesting thing to watch. His partner for the show had only done the show with him 3 times, so she was fairly fresh. But the idea of having prerecorded dialog and music meant that he could give her instructions during the show without missing a beat. He also carried on a fairly uninterrupted conversation with us during the show without missing things. It's so ingrained.

I've stolen some video from etsy seller, headexplodie, for you. Go buy stuff from her out of guilt for having watched stolen video.

Then we got to play with the puppets. That was good fun! Lewis Mahlmann made the puppets years and years ago (I don't want to be specific because I don't remember exactly, but Randal did tell me) and some of the costumes (in the show) were made by Frances Oznowicz. It was really an awesome theater to visit. And the park is pretty lovely as well. It's getting refurbished and there is fresh paint everywhere! (Even on the boy's shirt...whoopsiedoodle)

We head back into town tomorrow morning, so if you plan on stealing something from my house, now is the time.

It's a long one...sorry.

2008-05-21T12:01:00.000-07:00

This month has been insane! Maker Faire, Mother's Day, last month of teaching, first trip to Chicago, music video, 8-year anniversary and Hobo Soup! Crazy.

I've been meaning to post about the Maker Faire since it happened! I asked permission to use this photo, but for some reason its not uploading to Blogger or downloading to my computer. SO, you'll have to click the link to see me in action at the Maker Faire. I was a very busy girl. I auditioned for Make:TV and did a demo/talk on the Craft:magazine stage and spent hours upon hours showing kids and grown-ups alike how to backstitch and whip-stitch their way into a finger puppet.
See that pile of puppets there on the workbench? Four of them were taken right out from under my nose! Isn't that terrible? If I believed in karma I'd say it'd one day bite them in the tuchus, but since I don't, they'll probably just play with the puppets for a little while, and enjoy the fact that they stole my hard work without me ever noticing. I guess it affirms that people like what I do. It also affirms that the bunny & carrot set are more popular than the steak & dog set, as the bunny/carrot set were swiped twice. Someone also took a Sakura tool-belt full of awesome pens & markers AND a few puppets, but at least I was off doing something else so it was left unattended. That's enough lamenting, I suppose. Lesson learned: Trust no one.

The trip to Toronto was postponed, but I really didn't mind because it meant that I could spend Mother's Day at home with my family. It's also always nice to stay in Phoenix when it's not roasting-hot outside. I'll hopefully get away to Toronto when it's 118 here in the desert.

Last weekend I was in Chicago doing some puppetry on a music video, but I'm not sure how much I can share. I think I can share a production photo and if I can't, I'm sure the right people will contact me and ask me to take it down. The photo is courtesy of JP's cell phone. You can see me tucked underneath the table. I was puppeteering a butterfly that I had been asked to make about 10 minutes prior. I think I whipped it out in less than 5 minutes with only a t-shirt, wire, hot-glue & a marker. I felt like McGuyver.

In a way, that butterfly was very important. At least performing it was. As a kid I watched Sesame Street (of course I did) and in the Bert & Ernie segments especially, there seemed to always be a butterfly flitting around. I can't tell you how much I wanted to be that little butterfly. About 6 years ago I saw a purple Folkmanis butterfly puppet at the Great AZ Puppet Theater (my first trip there) & bought it right away only because it helped fulfill that little space in my dreams. So I made this puppet & went onto the set and basically said, "I'm performing it." There wasn't any way that anyone else was going to do it. A little dream was actually fulfilled with that t-shirt. Hooray for little dreams!

Doing that project was amazing. It was hard work, but I wouldn't mind more hard work like that at all! We got there at 8:30am and left at 3:30am. I'm really thankful that I was brought in for the it and I worked with some amazing puppeteers! This was my first professional video and my first experience with monitors. I was not only intimidated by just the project alone (and the monitors), but I was surrounded by experienced puppeteers. It really was an honor working with them & watching them perform. I'm sure my performance will be picked out easily as mine will be the puppet slowly sinking and hardly emoting.

It certainly pushes me to try to improve those skills. Not that I'll ever really have an opportunity like this again, but just in case I do, I want to be prepared.

I'm leaving with my family on Friday for a much-needed vacation together. We'll return home for 5 days and then leave again for another much-needed vacation together. I'm pretty excited & busy making puppets for people in the meantime. Tonight for dinner we're having Hobo Soup.

Maker Day!

2008-05-02T09:30:00.000-07:00

So here I am in California. I was able to attend Maker Day for the Maker Faire yesterday, and met a LOT of wonderfully geeky guys and gals. Mostly guys! The makers are into programming and hacking into things, making things with gears, soldering, and dremeling which is lovely. Someone had a machine that was a tongue to lick a lollipop with the turn of a crank. A gentleman who goes by the name of Doc was telling me about his boy on a bicycle and his next goal being to animate his face. The boy's, not his own.
Another guy I met, Simran, has made (to the best of me being able to describe things) an application that uses the wonder of virtual gravity and boxes and things crashing together in pretend-space to create a symphony of music. It's a very cool app & reminds me a lot of Electroplankton by Nintendo. (Which is a lovely little "game")

When I talk to most any of the makers--especially the ones who make baby arms move by sensors in the feet, or people who are exploring using ventriloquist dummy parts to create robots-- I think about how these things can merge in the world of puppetry. Puppetry overlaps to nearly every art-form. Hackers, programmers, visual artists, fiber artists, welders, woodworkers, actors and vocalists all have their important and vital roles in puppetry. WOW. I can't wait to talk about puppetry on Sunday and how each and every person there should become involved with it in some way.

Want to see a picture of me at Maker? Yes. So silly I am. I took a trip to the Maker Shed to see my kits displayed and they were sitting right next to John Kennedy's Puppet Planet. That's pretty darn rad, if I do say.

Frogs & San Francisco

2008-04-11T17:42:00.000-07:00

On the day before yesterday, I was asked by the good people at Make:/Craft: Magazine to go to the Maker Faire to be a demonstrator & possibly speak. Wow, what an incredibly awesome honor & opportunity! I bought my plane tickets yesterday and will go have a weekend on the town in San Francisco. Hooray! I also got the most amazing amigurumi frog in the mail from Italy yesterday. It was a little birthday gift to myself. I love it. WOW. Rosy LaWood is the artist who made the frog. The card inside the frog's messenger bag says, "please take care of me." Gosh, this frog is just so much fun! She's just begging to go to San Francisco with me!
So, really this week has been pretty darn rad.

Phillip Huber arrives to our theater next week. I think next week will also be rad. I'm in awe of marionettes and particularly his marionettes. He has really worked hard to preserve the history of puppetry. I admire him a lot.

I decided to celebrate all of these things by making myself a Shirley Temple. Mmmm delicious.

Congratulations, Stacy Wolf!

2008-04-08T10:51:00.000-07:00

Last night I attended the screening & awards ceremony for the Independent Feature Project's 4 Season Short Film Challenge (yes, mouthful). Our film was up for Best Feature, Best Writing/Story, & Best Director. We didn't expect to walk away with anything at this point. We'd already won the Winter Challenge, but we were competing against 15 other filmmakers & their films.

While our film didn't win $1,000, we did take home a lovely Plexiglas award, given to Stacy Wolf. Ya know, usually my first name gets misspelled. This I am used to. But my last name, not so much. But they did get one letter in my last name right, so that's good!

So I suppose, to get it fixed they either need to get me a new one. I did consider finding someone with the last name Wolf & marrying him/her. Or I suppose I could have just had it changed legally without marrying anyone. Considering I'm already married & have business cards with my name on them, I decided to ask them to send me a new award. The nice thing is that I get to keep the old one, so that means I get TWO!

So I guess I'm here being ridiculous & people are liking my ridiculous. Yay for that.

I am a serious grown-up

2008-04-02T23:52:00.000-07:00

About a half-hour ago I watched the clock change to midnight. I'm 30.

Tomorrow morning I'm going to eat cereal with no character on the box. For lunch I will eat a sandwich on whole-grain bread. I also plan to discuss my goiter with several people at a grocery store with whom I share no real connection. I'll retire to bed at 7:30pm and get up at 4am, go to the IHOP and ask for an early bird special. I will use the word elderly well more than I should.

I tell lies & that makes me happy. No. I'm happy because I immediately tattle. On myself. I'm meta.

You People Deserve To Read Something

2008-03-30T22:19:00.001-07:00

Good golly, how many times have you checked back & nothing new had been posted? I keep feeling as though I'm on the edge of something, so I hesitate in posting because, well, something significantly rad might come up tomorrow, whereas right now nothing definite is going on & reading about maybes is boring and difficult to follow.

I've been asked to go to Toronto in May to give an improv workshop to puppeteers. Oh, man, you have no idea how excited I am about this! I geek out over both of these things so hard. I love teaching improv to people who don't really know how/what it is. The fundamentals of improvisational theater are so lovely! Anthony Fama, of Tucson's Streetprov, has often said that the fundamentals of improv would solve a lot of people's problems (to be fair, I'm sure many people have said this, however I associate it with Anthony). I believe it to be true. There are some great foundations for life. I think everyone should be required to take First Aid/CPR, Driving Lessons & at least one improv workshop from the right person. I suggest Joe Bill.

The other half of that geeking out is that I adore seeing other puppeteers doing wonderful things & I'm rarely around puppeteers that I haven't known for 6 years! Oh man, and there's another side of it: Toronto! Yay that!

(Allison, did you hear gunshots around 10:30 on Sunday night? Yeah, me too..just now)

Also, I made a cabbage. I like him.

Happy Pie Day!

2008-03-14T10:48:00.000-07:00

I declare today the best day of all!

Second best: International Talk like o'Pirate day

Lessons from the Muppets

2008-03-07T20:07:00.000-08:00

The Muppet exhibit at the Arizona Museum for Youth closes on Sunday, so I did one last trip today with a friend. I looked for specific things today & how I could apply them to my own work. I did find techniques that I might use, but more importantly, looking at the puppets & Jim's doodles, I realized that there's a beautiful lack of perfection to most of it.

While the puppets are well more than what I can muster, they're not the models of perfection that I had built them up to be in my mind, from television, or from the initial exhibit visit, at which I was just amazed to be in the same room as these great works of art (not to mention Dave Goelz).

This time around I was looking for imperfections and I found them. Just like I can for anything in life, especially my own work. While I won't ever be content with my work, seeing all of these wonderful imperfections from people so highly revered encouraged me to go a little easier on myself.

I think the perfection that has been built up in my mind was due to the excitement & energy that Jim Henson & his cohorts put into it all. I've got that...holy crap, I've got that! So I'm just going to go with it. I'm not going to worry about what so-and-so might think....My own style & better building will come with time & with practice. I don't need to be perfect, I just need to do what I'm doing with the joy that it brings me. And if that doesn't make me successful, then I'll be having too much fun with what I'm doing to know that I'm miserable, right?

Just because I like to throw in photos, my carrot army is at the top there...its me..having fun with what I do!

Puppet Pie has found a mascot.

2008-02-28T01:21:00.001-08:00

I present to you....

PUPPET PIE!

It's a finger puppet. Part of Pie-Pact '08, however I decided that since I have so many things actually named Puppet Pie, that maybe I should keep this one. However *ahem* if you would like your own piece of puppet pie in any flavor of your choosing (most taste like felt), then just let me know & maybe I'll invest the time into making more for Etsy.

Also....Tonight our short film project for IFP's winter festival took home 3 awards:
1)Best Story.
*ahem* I'd like to thank Mack Duncan for our lovely brainstorming session & a lack of sleep for providing me with lines so hilarious that I shouldn't write them in a public space.
2)Best Use of Puppets
*ahem* I'd like to thank the panel of judges for making up an award specific to our show. I'd like to apologize to each film that did not get an award tailored to their piece. Specifically, I'm sorry film with the fat-suit. I really thought you should have had the best fat-suit award.
3)First Place (and a cash prize!)
*ahem* um..are you sure? You watched it, right? The one we submitted........Really? Wow. um...thank you? I think. Yes. Thank you. Thank you very much.

They took our picture. On the first one I thought, "oh lame, I get my picture taken & I smile like a 3 year old..that's great." On the second I thought "I get a second shot at the photo!" By the third photo I was really just a tad dazed.

The film will be presented at the Phoenix Film Festival on April 7th.

I want to make more films.

being proactive instead of reactive

2008-02-22T21:36:00.001-08:00

Of all of the puppets that I've made, I think this frog might be my favorite. I think one of the reasons for that is because I didn't get to keep him for very long. He was shown at a local art gallery in '06 and I wasn't expecting him to sell. I'd made him out of the leftover fabric from a dinosaur costume that I'd made for my son for Halloween that year. At least I think that's where the fabric came from....

I was telling a friend of mine how I am sad that I haven't kept a few key puppets in my building career...the frog, the Phoenix Coyotes Puppets, and a bunny or two. My friend said, "Well, why can't you just recreate the frog?" I thought of a long list of unreasonable reasons to not remake him, one reason being, "I don't have the same fleece." Then thought that I should at least try it no matter what color he is. Green is still the goal, here.

So I've embarked on a make-a-puppet-for-myself adventure. I am not going to post this one to Etsy and I'm not going to use it for any shows (that I know of). I'm taking my time, I'm starting over with things when they don't work right, and I'm allowing myself to put him down without being finished with him. Leaving him alone when he's not finished is actually the hardest part of this project. A) I want to see him done! B) there's a lingering fear that if I put him down, I might never find the time/motivation to pick him up again. So far, I've gone back to him. And, I'm really excited about the whole thing.

I give another workshop to another library for teens & tweens tomorrow..and then again on Thursday & the following Saturday & that ends my library run of workshops. By the way, if you live anywhere near Phoenix, just let me know if you want to know about the workshops in more detail...the Library is paying me to teach, so it's free to anyone ages 12-18.

There. I've updated. Are you happy?

The title was so lame, I changed it.

2008-02-08T01:17:00.000-08:00

Now, I told myself at the beginning of this journal that I'd not write about my boring personal life. I justify telling you about both my bronchitis and pink eye (at the same time) because I'm relating it to puppetry somehow.

A few weeks ago I was talking with a friend about interrupted plans..."I'll take January off (HAH!) & hit February really hard...." So, here it is, 1 week into February. I've been sick for nearly 2 weeks. All of my plans for February have been halted. Even January's plans didn't go according to plan. I prepared two shows, gave one workshop, met Dave Goelz & saw Kermit the Frog & Rowlf the dog (& Bert & Ernie & Cantus & Gobo & Gonzo & others...) for the very first time, filmed two puppet videos, taught classes, hosted an out-of-town guest and took at least one shower. All of this despite my wanting to take a little break.

Sometimes it feels like our plans are constantly interrupted. I'm not so sure that's true though, even though it seems to happen a lot. We silly humans remember abnormalities more-so than good ole regular things. So anytime a plan goes.....as planned, then we just assume that to be a normal thing. Anytime it goes down the drain, we remember it... This is something I have to remind myself of. Hey self, remember that time when I had 1 week to make 4 puppets and I did it? That was cool. That was a complete & utter abnormality. Maybe that's why I remember it. Oh the theory works! That makes me clap.

Life events always teach you something if you let them. What have I learned? Maybe it's to be flexible in my plans. To allow my plans to change rather than to be sad that they're not fulfilled. To be accepting of the changes & alter things accordingly. And that my eyes will scream if I forget to use their special eye drops.

Puppeteers Aren't Born

2008-01-22T13:25:00.000-08:00

I am learning how to do puppetry for film. Not so much by taking classes, but by filming, then messing up, then filming some more. I'm pretty excited about some of the shots we've gotten & pretty darn upset with myself for other shots.

The director at our theater always tells my students, "Nobody was born knowing how to do this. Everyone has had to make these mistakes and everyone has had to learn how to correct those mistakes."

Sometimes I think I was born knowing how to do all of these amazing things, and then when I do them for the first time (or the 89th time) and it's not perfect, I get frustrated because, dag nabbit I should have gotten that right the first time. I should have known, etc.

I'm making beginner's mistakes & just wish I wasn't a beginner.

Happy New Puppets!

2008-01-13T23:36:00.000-08:00

Since I last wrote anything here, a new year has begun, a puppet show has been created, and 4 show puppets have been built. This show was a collaboration between a fellow puppeteer & myself. It was the first show that we've done together in 5 years without another puppeteer whom we regularly performed with. I wasn't sure if we could pull it off. I wasn't sure if our humor would be of the same caliber, or if I could make the amount of puppets needed without his help. I'm so very pleased with how everything turned out. There's a sad empty space where the person in our group used to be, but we've survived our first round of shows without him there. I've passed the test I put myself through. I'm proud of myself. I'm proud of the other puppeteer. We work well together.

I'm going to now go into a mom thing....I can't help but record this little moment. I'm on the laptop in my bed...the boy asleep next to me. His tiny little hand stretched out and relaxed & his fingers are so soft. I keep grabbing them & he clenches them up a bit more. They remind me of his baby hands. I love that he wants to grow up to be an artist. Even if he choses math or sports, I'll be OK. For now, I'll enjoy that he reminds me of his newborn puppy-boy ways when he sleeps.

OK, back to puppet-talk.
With all of the puppets I made this time around, I experimented more with using halves of ping pong balls, instead of whole balls. I think I'll need to be more patient with attaching the ball to the face, so there are no gaps. Filling in the empty spaces with foam is common sense at this point. I love that I'm at a point at which some aspects of puppetry are common sense to me. Not so much for things like arm-rods, or even foam body construction. And a friend did come in and save me with advice for saving a beak.

What's next for puppet building?
I'm going to take my time with some puppets. I'll neglect my Etsy shop just a little bit. I'll spend some serious time with a puppet or two in February. I thought, if this chicken is what I can do in 4 hours...then what could I do with 14 days? Of course, my immediate response is, "well, I can mess around for 12 of those days, think about making the puppet for 2 of those days, then in the last 4 hours I can whip out another one of these." But that's instinct & I'm attempting to go against my instincts.

Oh those little hands on my tummy.....

Happy Merridays!

2007-12-25T20:27:00.000-08:00

"Mom! Wake up! The snow if falling from the ground!" This is what I was told at 7:30 this morning by my 4-year-old. Not "Mom, It's Christmas!" no "Mom, Santa brought me stuff!" not even "Hey, Look what I unwrapped for you!" My son knows what's important. His first white Christmas. It's also my first as well. My 30th Christmas & My son's 5th. The weeks leading up to Christmas he said "It always snows on Christmas in Colorado." We didn't want him to be disappointed, so we told him that, no, it doesn't always, in fact...it rarely does. So this morning, he saw it snowing from the ground & had to come tell me. It was much more important than the day that gifts are dumped upon his sweet head. We went downstairs to see the deck looking about an inch or two deep in snow and by now its about 9" deep 14 hours later. It's beautiful. I miss snow a lot. ( Toronto??)

So this week we're with just over half of the cousins. Imagine 10 children under the age of 7 running (and crawling) around the house. Of course Auntie Stacey is friggin rad because she knows all of these neat-o crafts and projects to do. So in one day we made sock puppets, paper-plate puppets, felt finger puppets & stick puppets (I feel wrong calling them rod puppets when they're made with Popsicle sticks). Yep, she's rad. I wish to meet her someday.

I realize this post has very little to do with puppetry or my journey to become a better puppeteer. Taking this break before I need to return home is, I'm sure, part of the journey. Not that the break should exactly be taken. I'll return home late on Sunday & I need 4 show puppets done by Thursday. Like I said in the previous post...baby-steps!

I remember the day when I had someone to help me build puppets. That day was nice. Someday I'll find another helper and I'll look back at this post and giggle and probably say "yeah, I'm still like that, aren't I?"

I feel like I need to end this post with some sort of "may your ___ be ___" statement. I'd sit here and think of a good one without writing in all of the stream-of-consciousness thought's involved in finding something witty to say, but then I'd probably just stare at the fish in the tank next to me in my Father-In-Law's office while they eat their Christmas flakes. And you be way less entertained because then you'd be done reading & you'd have to go back to doing what you were trying to avoid when you began reading this in the first place, so really, I'm doing both of us a favor. So let's stall just a bit more, shall we? Did you like what you got for Christmas? Did your ___ like what you got for them? What did you guys have for lunch? OK This seems one-sided & I tire of your silence.

May the last 6 days of 2007 be better than the best things that happened between January 1st and December 25th (Of 2007). Be well, and I apologize for being ridiculous.

Loving my meat

2007-12-17T18:37:00.001-08:00

I've been really busy these past few weeks, but by far my greatest achievement happened yesterday and was the creation of raw meat.

Raw meat was more significant to me than anything else I've done recently. I think it's because I created a finger puppet that got me wanting to create more finger puppets. For so long I was creating for others. Previously I'd made something I liked, and naturally more than one person wanted a 'copy,' so I didn't have the time (or the creative juices) to create for myself anymore. Not for a long time anyway. So, I've stopped taking custom orders in my shop & now, if I don't want to recreate something, then I don't have to. Sure, I could have denied people before, but I'm one of those people who wants to accommodate everyone. If you ask for maize, by golly I'll give you maize...or squid Elvis...or bacon...or other personal-to-a-woman type puppets...

This break really came on the heels of doubting myself as an artist. I had stopped expressing what's inside of me (yes, raw meat is totally inside of me). I was creating what *had* been inside of me but was now put into a tiny felt sculpture. I hope this will also affect my hand puppets. I've lifted the pressure of deadlines & requests in some ways. Of course there area always deadlines for show puppets, but let's take baby-steps.

The workshop in Casa Grande went swimmingly. I had a wonderful mixture of adults and kids (ages 10+). Every time I do a workshop, I am absolutely floored by what comes out of the minds of others. I really can't wait to go back. It was lovely. Just being in that city makes me feel warm and fuzzy. The craft store closes at 3:30 on Saturdays. It's very similar to the town in which I grew up. Simply adorable. Granted, it's much larger than my hometown, but the main, downtown area is very similar.

First Friday's Artwalk at the Trunk Space was quiet and lovely. The rain kept most people away which, for me, is a very relaxing thing. I adore spending a few quiet hours in the company of friends, drinking an Izzie, surrounded by art & talking about...youtube videos.

I'm getting around!

2007-11-15T00:13:00.001-08:00

I feel like I might be everywhere at once. This is a bit of late-night thought gathering, so it might be disordered & long-winded, but then again, when is my life not that way?

So I was thinking about where my puppets are as of late...
I may or may not be sending puppets to Everette, Washington (just waiting on a contract) to be sold in a bookstore/gift shop there.
My work will be not only seen, but for sale at The Trunk Space's gift art show for the next two months, the opening is this Friday night.
Commercial is still running. That's exciting.
I'm also doing a workshop at the Paramount Theater in Casa Grande, AZ on December 8th! Same as the other one, but further south & $5.00 more (if you want to go, 520-316-9290 or email michelle@paramount-theatre.com).

I feel extremely happy with myself regarding all of these "goings arounds"

I'm apparently bad at blogging

2007-11-12T22:25:00.000-08:00

I keep meaning to write something of great importance, but I put it off, then I forget about it. It was so important, right?

I've been taking these last couple of weeks to actually be productive. That includes making puppets, listing puppets on etsy, taking pictures of puppets, updating bad pictures of puppets & giving puppet workshops.

Speaking of workshops, the workshop on November 10th was amazing! Thank you to everyone who not only showed up, but showed up with enthusiasm and an open mind to discovering their puppet. Yes, it sounds like a hippie way to build, but sometimes you just have to let go and let puppet...or something like that.

A bit of an amusing story...So about an hour and a half before the workshop, as my husband and I were on our way home from grabbing some last-minute supplies, I start to feel a bit under the weather...the car ride wasn't helping. I just barely made it to the toilet & had some diarrhea of the face. I climbed into bed with the usual post-barfing shakes & called the venue. Basically we decided that if I could do it, I'd do it, but if I couldn't, the people who signed up are all very understanding & some might not mind a postponement. I didn't want to leave anyone hanging, so I decided I'd go as far as I could. If that was 1/2 way through the workshop, then so be it. Thankfully the more I got to thinking about puppets, the less I got to thinking about vomit. The ginger ale helped, too.

There seems to be a trend in my puppet workshops & vomit coming out of my body. 3 hours before I was to leave for New York to give a workshop at the Etsy labs in June, I got the stomach bug that had been going around our home. I decided to still go & had a great time. I think I need to give at least one more workshop for adults to see if this theory holds up.

Contest Winner Announcement!

2007-11-01T20:13:00.000-07:00

I hearby officially declare and decree:
Yesterday, in the midst of trick-or-treaters, a young Godzilla reached into a bowl and pulled out the number 19. What does that mean? Well, the 19th transaction of the 20 transactions eligible to win the puppet from the drawing post in, oh gosh, was that back in August? was the winner!

Who made that transaction you ask? Well by golly it was Megan Mucci of http://muttsywonder.etsy.com! Congratulations Megan! I wish I'd thought of sending your fluffy puppet today when I was at the post office...Oh well, look out for him soon...and by soon I mean sometime before Christmas!

My sad, sweet condolences to everyone else who did not win the puppet. But don't lose hope, there will be more contests like these! Misfit puppets need love and support, and the only way to give them what they need is to have people win them. You love something if you win it, right? So keep your eyes peeled both here and in my shop to see what the next little bundle of fluff might be up for the winning!

In mild other news, I have a puppet slam tomorrow night at the Great Arizona Puppet Theater at 8pm. I'm in at least two shows & am pretty darned excited as this will be my first performance venture into shadow puppetry. oooOOoooo

Wayne Gretzky & Puppets & Me

2007-09-30T13:08:00.000-07:00

I saw the commercial today. Its pretty good. I, of course, wish the manipulation was better on my puppets, but that's OK. I'm kind-of weirded out that my puppets have now been on television. yah

Anyway, here's the video: